


One Wish Off

by Sam_V



Category: Trials and Trebuchets (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Field Trip, Gen, Original Character(s), You'll see what I mean later in the story, as usual, something goes wrong
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-15 11:35:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28562874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sam_V/pseuds/Sam_V
Summary: The team go on a trip to a small town for a celebration and possibly get information about the orbs.
Relationships: Mira Marchand/Delnys Raethran, Philip Maisel/Serinepth Sinderman
Comments: 7
Kudos: 4





	1. Wake Up Call

Early mornings at Wildcliff held a certain type of calming atmosphere. Some mornings held a silence that would be so prominent that there would be an echo of the rustling trees from the surface that would resonate throughout the caves walls, creating an illusion for being surrounded by a forest. Many mornings were met with a conduction of birds chirping as they made their way past the cliff face and went to gather breakfast. On occasion, there may be a rainstorm, and though the students would not experience the loud tapping of rain directly hitting the roofs and windows of their dorms, the ambiance of rain falling would echo. Because of Wildcliffs location, these experiences would be jarring the first time you heard them, but many students got used to it very quickly; the echo would rest over each individual like a blanket.

However, if you were to ask any student what the worst noise to wake up to in the morning was, no matter how many times they would hear it, it would be the sound that comes from the strong wind gusts of the spring storm season. The first time that the first years heard of this noise there was genuine fear that something had gone horribly wrong in the structure of the school itself, that the buildings themselves were about to collapse. The screech that would come from the wind hitting the exact direction that it would need to push itself into the cave mouth where Wildcliff resides has been concluded to be both the most annoying, and the most terrifying noise that anyone could hear. Being on a cliff face, as they are, generally means it doesn't happen very often, and it would be forgotten about some time before the next years storm arose. If you asked the older students they would tell you the story of the wind storm from two springs ago that went on for 3 days straight and haunted the students of Wildcliff for those 3 days exactly. One of the first days of school one of the older students went to the younger students and warned them of the noise that would come from these winds, and like many urban legends of prominent schools, the first years generally ignored it. So understandably, on this particular morning, when the students of Wildcliff collectively jumped from their beds and fell to the floor at the sound that came through the cliff mouth, the older students collectively groaned in distress, and the younger students thought that the cave had become possessed by a tortured soul of some kind.

* * *

Integrity was using her hair as makeshift earplugs to attempts to block out the noise, collecting the strands around her ears to ball up and stuff into them as she made her way to the dining hall for some breakfast before her mid morning classes started. It worked in some regards, though it did start to unravel itself every few steps across the courtyard, and by the time she had sat down at the second years table her ears had become unbearably itchy. She did her best to fix her hair and looked around her table to see that she was only SWIM member at the table. She rubbed her ears to get rid of the itch and could see Murundeen and his group on the other end of the table, in the middle of what looked like a heated debate. Her curiosity was growing, a new itch to slide down the bench and get a closer look at what they were talking about on this horrible morning. She set her hands on the table and just as she began to move the main doors opened once again and Mira, Winsler, and Serinepth bursted into the room with a couple first years and some second years, who Mira held the door for before joining the rest of the team that were already situating themselves at the table. Looking at their faces, she could tell that they were having the same problem as the rest of the students, which was being woken up at 5 in the morning by the first loud screech of wind before trying in vain to cover the noise enough to get some more sleep. Of the group Serinepth looked the most awake as she looked over the options for breakfast that day.

"At least one of us is ready for the day." Mira smiled. Serinepth didn't seem to hear her, so Winsler poked her shoulder and pointed to Mira once she got her attention. Mira looked at her, waiting for some acknowledgement, but she just smiled back to her and waved before grabbing some juice and continuing to look through her options. The three other group members looked at each other confused before integrity lightly kicked her cousins foot from under the table, making her jump. She snapped her fingers and looked at her friends.

"Whats up?" She spoke so casually, completely oblivious to what had happened before.

"I said, 'at least one of us is ready for the day'. How are you so okay with the noise going on outside?" Mira asked her.

"Believe me, I hate the noise as much as you guys, my trick is this." With that declaration Serinepth pushed her hair back and revealed a pair of earrings, she snapped her fingers again and the gem in the middle began to glow. "These cut out sound completely, I can't hear anything." She spoke loudly, making the others jump.

"Aren't deafening enchantments not allowed outside of classes for safety purposes?" Serinepth stared at Mira with a confused expression. Mira frowned and casted message on Serinepth instead. Integrity watched the two of them have their silent conversation before glancing at Winsler. The two shrugged to each other and started grabbing some food. Eventually the conversation stopped and Serinepth sighed, taking the earings out and reluctantly put them in Mira's outstretched hand, muttering about stupid rules. Just as she spoke a loud groaning wail of wind made its way past the closed doors, making her cover her ears. "I hate this." She announced loudly as the wailing continued. It took a couple seconds for it to fade out once again. Meanwhile, Mira reached into her bag and started to search for something.

"Luckily for you, the student council has found a small solution to the problem that doesn't break the rules." She paused and pulled out a couple small clear bags containing two royal blue plugs with the Wildcliff sigil on it. "These are Wildcliff earplugs. The charm in them is minute, but we did some testing on it recently and they work great in cutting out high frequencies.". She handed a pair to Winsler, who quickly put them in and snapped his fingers. Just as he did there was another, shorter wail from outside.

"I gotta say," Winsler signed and hunkered down. "For one of the school's loudest features, you'd think that they would have done something to fix this whole 'wailing cave' problem years ago." Mira shrugged, opening another bag of earplugs and handing the two of them to Integrity. She took them gratefully and shoved them in before returning to her bacon, watching her friends converse around her.

"I think they thought of the short term solution and stuck with it." Mira shook the last bag of earplugs to Serinepth, who took them with a begrudging expression and slipped them through her hair and into her ears, scrunching her nose at the feeling before looking over to her friends.

"I heard that a couple of first years are planning to bring it up with the school council.". Winsler noted, looking over to the first year table and watching the students hunker into themselves, happily taking the little bags of earplugs that the fourth ears were now handing out. Delnys, one of the students performing this task, looked over to the team and saw them watching the interactions. She smiled and blew a kiss to Mira, who winked at her and blew her own kiss back. Winsler and Serinepth mimmed exaggerated grossed out expressions, earning a croissant to the head each, meanwhile Integrity was looking off into the middle distance.

"It feels like so long ago we were trying to fulfill that role, making the school a better place and all that jazz. Everyday a new adventure." She reminisced outloud, taking a bite of her croissant. The other members of S.W.I.M. were quiet for a couple moments.

"It's only been one term." Winsler looked around to the others.

"Also, that implies so far this new term we haven't been trying to keep Wildcliff safe." Serinepth added.

"Well," Integrity wagged her finger for a moment, taking another bite of the croissant. " we haven't really done anything substantial yet."

"Hey, we stopped a water sprite from flooding the school." Mira argued. "And we stopped that ghost from destroying the library."

"I still think destroy is an over-exageration, I was expecting more than just 'these books keep falling off the shelf'." Integrity rested her head in her left hand. With a raised eyebrows, Winsler pointed to the tiefling with his spoon.

"Ms. Redding would disagree with you on that." She waved her hand dismissively, almost smacking Serinepth's hand as she was reaching over the table. Serinepth stopped her hand and took a fruit container from the centre of the table, before retreating.

"You can continue now." She smiled at her cousin, who continued to look off somewhere as she opened it.

"The moments passed." The group ate in silence, enjoying the few moments of peace before another cringing wail came from outside the building. "Shouldn't there be a budget for making architectural changes?" Integrity mumbled around another piece of bacon.

"If there's any evidence in this school, I haven't seen it." Mira sighed from next to her, waving to one of the first year book club members as he passed by 

"We definitely aren't at the same caliber that we were last year, but that's not really our fault that we kind of took care of a lot of issues already." Serinepth continued with the previous discussion and slid down in her seat, Integrity shrugged her shoulders and leaned against Mira, reaching over her to grab another croissant.

"Maybe that means we took care of all the big bad things. At least that means nothing bad can happen now."

"Well, you just jinxed our trip." A voice spoke up from just behind her, making her jump and turn to Philip as he walked around to the other side of of the table and took a seat next to Serinepth, who wrapped her arm around his shoulder and handed him a blueberry.

"What trip? The only trip we're going on is on Thursday.". Serinepth frowned at Integrity's insinuation, popping a strawberry into her mouth before speaking up.

"Integrity, today is Thursday.". Integrity looked around the table to her group and associates. Slowly, she brought a hand to her chest and leaned back slightly.

"Were none of you going to tell me what day it was today?" Serinepth shook her head and covered a snort with her hand, taking a piece of pineapple and nibbling on it.

"To be fair, we thought you already knew what day it was today. Especially because you're the only one of us who can accurately tell the time." Mira commented as she drank some juice. Integrity rolled her eyes.

"The measurement of time and the measurement of days aren't the same.". Then quickly, before anyone could say anything or even properly react, she scrunched her eyebrows and lifted her finger up in a wait motion. "I realized my mistake the second I just opened my mouth, what I meant was; I didn't realize this Thursday was _this_ Thursday." The rest of the team and Philip nodded to her.

"Artis wants us to meet him out front of the Necromancy Department after our morning classes so that he can tell us whats going on today." Mira grabbed a sliced kiwi from Serinepth's bowl and put it in her mouth.

"Wait, you don't know anything yet?" Philip looked over to Serinepth with a raised eyebrow. Not looking up from her now vacant bowl with only melon slices inside, using her fork to move aside the orange and green slices to see if she can find any more pieces of the other fruits, the taller woman seemed to be lost to the conversation for a moment. With her search coming up a failure she looked over to Philip with a frown.

"Honestly, I'm just as surprised as you. Usually people will reaffirm what's going on around me because I tend to space out outside classes or life threatening situations."

"Running off to Seri-Land?". Serinepth pointed her fork in a vague threatening fashion towards Winsler, who wore a smug grin.

"For the last time, stop calling it 'Seri-land'." This just made Winsler smirk wider, making her scrunch her eyes at him. Integrity rested her cheek in her hand and watched the two of them with an amused expression.

"Man, first we can't call your dorm room the Thunderdome, and now this? You have no market branding." She piped up, leaning back when Serinepth turned the end of the fork towards her.

"I'm a noble woman, my entire existence is a brand." She set her fork back into the bowl before setting the melon only dish in front of Integrity, who happily started munching down the melon slices. Mira smiled to her group before she stretched her back and stood up.

"Okay, I'm heading to my first class, I'll see you guys in front of the Necromancy building.". She pointed to Serinepth and Integrity, giving them a serious expression. "Don't forget." They nodded and she made her way over to the fourth years table quickly, planting a kiss on Delnys' cheek before she waved goodbye to her partner and headed out the main doors.

The group sat in silence for a moment before Serinepth glanced back over to Philip with a sweet smile.

"I'm not spoiling the surprise for you guys.". She frowned.

"You could spoil it just for me though.". He smiled and tapped her cheek before getting up. "Come on, just a hint, do I have to wear shorts? Do I need a coat?"

"I'll see you in an hour, Seri." He called over his shoulder. "And don't bother asking the others cause Yexim told us not to." He added with a wave and left the main hall.

"Boooo.". She called back to him. The three remaining students looked to each other. "We could still ask them."

"Artis seemed excited when he introduced the idea of this trip to us last week, so maybe it's best that we let him have the moment." Serinepth dropped her eyes and sat back defeated.

"It's not like I want to know everything before he tells us, I just want to know how I should dress for the weather."

"I mean I can act like I didnt know about it already, watch." Integrity cleared her throat. "'Oh wow, really? We're going to go to this place? That sounds amazing!'. 'I know I wanted to tell you all before we left, it's going to be the bestest trip ever'. 'I'm so excited to go to this place I'm only now hearing about!'. And scene" She waved her hand and looked to her friends. Serinepth looked slightly confused at what just happened, Winsler looked contemplative.

"I'll give it a 7 out of 10 for originality and the Artis impression"

"I'm taking a point off for Artis saying 'the bestest trip ever', he would never say that." Serinepth added. Integrity frowned and jumped when she heard laughter from up the table and saw Silvi and Lucia watching them.

"Hey trip mates." Lucia waved over to them. "Having fun?"

"I'd be better if someone would tell me what climate we're traveling to." Serinepth sat up straight and squinted her eyes at them. They looked like they were enjoying this too much. "Can you at least give us a hint?" She asked them with a pout, Silvi sighed in response before looking over to Lucia for a quick and quiet discussion. After a second Lucia looked over to them.

"You don't need a coat.". The three nodded, but knew it didn't really give them a lot to go off of. At their expressions Silvi rolled her eyes and smiled.

"Just wait for the announcement from your mentor, cause I know you guys probably won't be doing the same stuff as us, but I promise it will be fun." With that they got up and left the main hall, as had many students of varying years at that point, leaving the main hall at a third capacity. After a moment Serinepth rested her head on the table.

"Agh, I need to distract myself with something else. What were we talking about before the trip stuff?"

"The howl's of the tortured souls outside this very building." Winsler answered, picking up his bowl and drinking the remaining milk. Serinepth nodded, tapping her fingers on the table top as she seemed lost in thought again.

"Howl's of the damned sounds a little too clean. It's more of a cackle, but high pitched.". Winsler looked across the table to integrity

"Doesn't the word cackle insinuate that it's high pitched already?"

"I mean, yes, but I don't know the word for a deep voiced cackle."

"You don't need another word, you already have the right word."

"Yeah but now I want to know what the right word is. Serinepth, what's the word for a deep voiced cackle?". Serinepth snapped out of her thoughts and looked up to the group at her name.

"Why do you think I would know that word?"

"Cause your book smart.". Integrity answered like it was the obvious answer. At this point Winsler knew that trying to change the subject again wouldn't work. Serinepth seemed to realize the same thing and tilted her head back slightly. The group waited quietly for a final verdict. Finally, after a minute Serinepth clapped her hands loudly, which was a tell that she had thought of something.

"You know, I read a book about architectures and how changing the shape of holes can change the sound that it makes when the wind blows through it.". The other two looked over to her, waiting to see what her sudden point was. "I'm just saying, if we made the opening on the cliff face bigger, then the sound would get a deeper pitch and wouldn't sound like someone is vacuuming some poor animal." This got Integrity's attention. 

"We've gone off topic again." Winsler complained quietly as she sat up and set her hands on the table, leaning forward towards her teammates.

"Maybe if we make the hole big enough then it could be like a relaxing hum that can help me with my meditation.". Integrity rubbed her hands together. "Or at least it won't wake me up in the morning." Winsler clapped his hands, gaining both their attentions efficiently. He waited a moment, making sure neither of them were going to go off on their own conversation again before he spoke.

"I don't feel comfortable with us having this conversation without Mira here." Serinepth looked at him dubiously.

"You think she would want to be a part of this plan?"

"No," he pointed to her, shutting down that thought right away. "in fact I think she should be here to talk ya'll out of actually going through with this plan. She's got, like, 75% of our teams impulse control". Serinepth laughed out loud at the insinuation and waved her hand.

"I wasn't talking about _actually_ doing it, I was just saying it's something that _can_ be done.". Winsler sighed and moved himself so that he was straddling his seat. "I'm not actually going to do it, I swear, it was just a thought." Winsler rested his hand on her shoulder, feeling the slight tremor as she was visibly trying to calm down from her excitement.

"Seri, I know you woke up this morning and chose chaos, and I love chaotic Serinepth as much and the next person. I need to know that if I leave this table you two aren't going to blow a hole into the cliffside.". After Integrity rested her hand over her heart and swore not to, both of them watched Serinepth take too long to answer.

"I promise." She sounded reluctant, but Winsler took it at face value and got up from the table. Before pointing to Integrity.

"As half of the remaining 25%, I'm asking you to make sure she doesn't actually do it.". Integrity gave him a salute.

"Hey, wait, I have no percentage?!". Serinepth looked confused, glancing betweent the two other team members with a betrayed expression.

"Not when you get chaotic on us, the rest of the time we share the 25%. I'm going to class.". He turned around and walked away. The cousins looked at each other, Serinepth gesturing to the door.

"Remember when he kept selling parts of his being to Seltie?"

"Remember when you talked about blowing up part of the cave currently inhabiting hundreds of students.". Serinepth pursed her lips at Integrity's point and sat back.

"I wasn't actually going to do it." She muttered. Integrity climbed over the table and took a seat next to Serinepth.

"If you weren't thinking of doing it you wouldn't have picked up a book about it." Integrity leaned against Serinepth and felt her sigh deeply. She loved when her cousin got chaotic, it was a moment where they were almost the same person. It was great for them and their bonding, not so much for other people.

"Want to split another fruit cup?". Integrity nodded and the two of them started eating through another of the containers when Serinepth set her fork on the table with force. "The deep version of a cackle is a chortle."


	2. The Morning Of

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was the birds that woke her up this morning, as usual. They generally started to tap at the front window of she cottage when they ran out of birdseeds in the feeder she had installed a few years ago. The birds gave way to more noises in the early morning, particularly the sound of people running around and talking together, excitement coated the air in a fine dust, much like the dust that reflected through the sun beams, dancing just in view.

It was the birds that woke her up this morning, as usual. They generally started to tap at the front window of she cottage when they ran out of birdseeds in the feeder she had installed a few years ago. The birds gave way to more noises in the early morning, particularly the sound of people running around and talking together, excitement coated the air in a fine dust, much like the dust that reflected through the sun beams, dancing just in view. She laid in her bed for an extra couple of minutes, readying herself for the day when she heard the regular group for children playing outside her window, no doubt on the old hollowed out wagon wheel swing she had set up years ago. She smiled to herself, stretched, and got up from her bed on shaky legs. She reached to her side to see her cane was on the floor, she sighed and sat back down, using the different height to grab the edge of the cane and pull herself up properly this time. She was told not to exert her legs by the physician, but what she didn't know wouldnt hurt her. Moving slowly, she went into her bathroom and pulled some draughts from her cabinet and took a swing of the water she had left on the side of her sink. She stood for a moment, letting the muscle relaxants do their work and took a moment to try and remember what was happening that day. She went over the last few days in her head when she heard the children talking outside.

"I heard Isaac's dad is baking a pie with the blueberries they just harvested. I bet it's gonna win the taste competition."

"Do you think if we ask well be able to get the leftovers?"

"Oh man, I can't just eat pie, I'll get full too fast and then I'd have bought all that sweet taffy for nothing." She laughed to herself as the children started talking about how they would organize their candy intake for the day so that they wouldn't be sick for their farm chores the next day. With a sigh, stretching her legs out so she wouldn't cramp, she made her way into the kitchen.

"'Every 10 years, the shooting stars fill the night sky' isn't that how the story starts?" The silence of the house was the only answer she got as she puttered around the cupboards until she had every thing to make herself a simple breakfast of toast and butter with a side of tea. She could hear the neighbours talking loudly from the front of the house and made her way to there. When she opened the front door there was a moment where she was blinded by the sun's brightness so early in the morning and how the beams reflected in her front pond. She made her way over to the porch swing and took a seat, holding her tea in her hands and setting the breakfast plate on the swing next to her before she started to slowly rock herself. Taking a deep breath in, she took in the scent of fresh harvests, cool post-storm air, and a hinted undertone of manure, something she had become used to over the years.

The street had people at varying stages of preparation for the day. She could see her neighbors, a young married couple with two children, out on the porch and setting the ground rules for their kids. Across from her little cottage she could see three kids sitting out on their porch and talking excitedly about what games they were going to play first at the festival. Some families from up the road were already making their way into town, where she could see many of the games and stalls were being set up from this spot on the hill. Finally, she glanced over to the large oak tree that sat in her front lawn, where many of the adolescent kids of this neighborhood were playing in various parts of the tree. Their favourite activity was trying to see how many people could fit themselves into the large wheel swing. At this point the record was 9, each kid skinny from farm work and planking on top of eachother to be able to squeeze themselves into the old wagon wheel. At that moment, only three children were in the wheel itself, swinging back and forth with a combined power but no coordination as two other kids ran around the circumference of the tree itself. From the dark brown hair she recognized the children were from the big farm up the hill, the Kindling's. She tilted her head and counted the children out, the three into he wheel were the eldests; Rue, Wymon, and Sid. The twins were the two girls running around the base of the tree, Pasha and Evon. A questioned flickered in her mind before she heard a distinct snap from up the tree and looked up to the middle of the tree.

"Ether, I don't think I need to tell you to stop climbing so high?" She called up to a young child as they stopped climbing higher into the tree. They climbed down to a sturdier branch and moved further out of the body, looking out through the foliage.

"I'm being safe." They complained, pouting out their lower lip. At her raised eyebrow they dropped their eyes and climbed down the tree with expertise, landing on the ground next to their siblings, who were all now trying to all sit in the swing. They stepped closer to the porch and rested their hand against their forehead, shielding their eyes from the sun shinng on the horizon. "Sorry ma'am." They called out just as a pregnant woman came to the fence of the old woman's property, her hair as prominent and dark as her children's.

"Your dad's heading in to set up the food stall, if you want a ride we're going now.". As the children jumped off the swing and the group ran through the front gate, the woman looked up to the porch with a smile. "Thanks for keeping them out of trouble, I'll get one of them to bring you some pies from the festival later.". The old woman smiled and waved to the woman.

"It's absolutely no trouble darling, they keep themselves entertained enough. As for the pie that sounds lovely Em. Now, stay off your feet and relax today, for goddesses sake, your 8 months in and I don't know how many more babies I can handle being born in my house.". The pregnant woman laughed at that and shook her head, turning when she saw her husband in the wagon with their kids hanging off the back and talking excitedly at the prospect of the fun activities what would be taking place in a few hours. Em climbed onto the wagon and the family waved to the old woman as they started their trip done the hill. She watched them make their way out of sight with a smile. Those two love birds had grown up together in this neighbourhood, Em just across the street from her cottage, Theo just up the way on his family farm. She remembered helping Theo's parents when they had issues with the larger equipment on their farm. It was one of the perks of having magic, being able to do some heavy lifting without straining your back. She couldn't help comparing those two to how she used to be, running around everywhere, feeling like there was no time to pause, and yet now here she was, sitting on her porch with no where to go. Well that wasn't true for today. She had all the time in the world, it was a shame she wasn't able to use that free time to go down to the festival.

Her hip started hurting as a sign when it would rain, she was told it was nothing too serious by the physician, 'As you get older your body becomes more sensitive to that sort of stuff, the pressure in the air' was how they explained it. A few decades after that her hip started to hurt when it was too warm out. Then when it was too cold. When it was too mild. Too humid. Too dry. In the end, anything would make her hip hurt and she felt it better to stay in a controlled environment where she could at least sit down for a couple minutes when it became too much of a strain.

She was lucky that she had so many people to keep an eye out on her, whether it was the kids who visited her everyday for their reading lesson or one of the young adults who would come by with a baked good and to check up on her. She was never alone. It was insane to think that she had moved to this town only 100 years ago. There was a lot that she couldn't believe. when she had left her teaching position she had thought that she would never find the energy to start teaching again, or at least now she knows she would never teach again in a magic sense. When she had reached this town the people had been surprised to meet someone who seemed so 'wise'. Perhaps it had a lot to do with the fact that she was an elf, and though she had looked old when she first moved to the town, she has not aged many days since. She could remember the moment she realized that her magic was virtually useless in town, that many of the people had resources and ways to generally fix and move things without the need for it. As a sorceress who had spent much of her life using magic in any way, shape, or form it was refreshing to not depend on it day in and day out. At one point she was frustrated enough with the lack of magic that she had thought of leaving, but the people brought her back. These people, with simple lives and simple needs and everything was at face value, what was needed and what you could do to help. For many of the people in the town now, she has always been there and has always been someone to give advice and to answer questions. For her it was only a fraction of a long life. Where she found herself without the responsibilities of teaching or mentorship, that she found she enjoyed the little moments more.

As she ate her food her mind rushed back to the first time Em had gotten pregnant, she and Theo had been over visiting her, eating dinner, when Em's water broke. She smiled to herself, remembering the fear she had felt in her gut when she watched the young woman curl into herself in pain, at first she thought I had something to do with the soup that she had made, but it had become obvious what was happening when her dress had gotten wet. She remembers the look on Theo's face when she realized what was happening too, the two of them had scrambled quite a bit at the moment before remembering to call for the physician in town. She looked down to her empty plate and sighed to herself. With slow movements she took the cane from next to her and slowly stood up, turning to grab her plates, and then slowly making her way inside the house. She moved carefully into the kitchen and set her plate and cup into her sink before looking around the house and sighing. 

"Every 100 years sounds like too short a time for this legend business.." She argued to the empty house as she started to clean her dishes. "Mind you, 100 years would have sounded impossible for you. 'What would you do for ally shot time? I can't imagine living longer then 100 years at most. You must get bored at some time'. We had the same grey hair and you still called me an old lady." She shook her head and set the cleaned plate to the side. After some quiet contemplation, she continued cleaning her other dishes from the dinner she had cooked the night before, scrubbing the pan out with strong circular motions. She let the mundane work sweep her into her memories, when the house was filled with more music and her younger tasted more complicated and delicious meals on a regular basis. When was the last time the piano had been dusted? At the thought she looked towards the living room. Though she wasn't able to see it, she could sense its presence there. "You would have said three years is a long time too. 'What? How can you sit and do the same thing everyday for 3 years? You must be doing something fun to pass the time in between'.". With the last dish cleaned and put to the side, she rested her hands on the edge of the sink, looking out the back window that faced the back garden. "Tonight's going to be special." She picked up her cane from where she had set it on the table and made her way to the living room. Against the wall, next to an old loveseat that was fading from its position in the sun, was an old bookshelf. With sure movement she pulled a time from the shelf and set it on her coffee table. Unlike other parts of the house, she kept this book clean. Ever since she had found it she had madet it a rule to keep it clean in fear that she would forget it was on her shelf. Running a hand over the front cover gently, she sat down on the couch, her spot already warmed up by the sun creeping through her window. She looked over to the top shelf of the bookcase. The ingredients were gathered and prepared already, her garden had been transformed into a herbologists dream spot, magic infused soil to mimick climates she had never personally visited before and basins of water filled to make the space perfect to grow almost anything. She couldn't wait until it was a flower garden again, she'd even be willing to get some vegetables in there too.

Her thoughts were interrupted when there was a knock on her front door. She frowned to herself and pulled herself up. A young boy, no more then 10, stood on her doorstep, clearly out of breath from running to her cottage from the town. His red hair was wild from the travel, half of it stuck to the side of his pale face, but his smile was bright like his pink cheeks.

"Well good morning Isaac," she smiled to the boy as he caught his breath and sat down on the top step of her porch.

"Hi ma'am. Mom said that you wanted some help with something before the festival today?". He rubbed his forehead, wiping off some sweat. She smiled and nodded to him, waving him inside the house and through into her kitchen where she got him some lemonade from the cold chest set in the darkest corner of the room.

"Yes my boy. You see, I have some friends coming to visit me today and they, unfortunately haven't been here before." At her discussion the young boy sat up in his chair with wide eyes.

"Are you coming to the festival tonight?" He sounded excited at the prospect, getting to see her famed magic show that she had put on many years ago, well before he was born. She smiled bit shook her head, feeling some guilt when he sat back in his chair. After a moment of thought she took her own seat.

"How about this," she started, getting his attention. "If you help navigate them to my cottage when they arrive, I'll put on a magic show tomorrow evening for you and your friends.". She held her hand out to him and laughed when he caught it and shook it with the energy only Isaac could possess.

"Deal!" He jumped off his chair and ran to out of the kitchen, making it to the door before he stopped and turned to her once again. "What do they look like?". She smiled and shifted in her chair.

"You'll recognize them by their royal blue robes."


	3. Off We Go

"Tropical beach destination." Silvi rolled her eyes, trying to cover up the smirk on her face as Integrity tried to continue guessing the secret location of their trip. The two had met up after their morning classes and were making their way to their meeting points with their mentors. This was giving Integrity some ample time to try and get the details from her roommate before they split up. Or at least it would if Silvi was in any way being convinced she should tell integrity what's going on. The Tiefling jumped foot to foot before running forward a couple feet and turning around to the Dragonborn and started walking backwards, still keeping pace. "That would be fun, it's a little too early in the season for us to go swimming buy maybe where we're going is warmer than here, who knows? Wink wink?" Integrity exaggerated her actions, winking at Silvi, who continued to watch her amused and unbreakable to her attempts. Integrity stopped walking when she saw that her friend wasn't going to budge and rested her hands on her hips. With rolled eyes, Silvi also stopped in front of her and crossed her arms, not bothering to hide her smile.

"I'm not telling you." They stared at eachother until Integirty sighed loudly and dropped her arms, making Silvi's waning control break as she started laughing at her friends reaction. It took a moment to calm down, but once she did she put her hands on her pouting friends shoulders and spun her to face their destination once again.

"Just one hint." Integirty begged, she could hear Silvi was still laughing.

"We already gave you a hint. Your going to meet your mentor literally right now, you can wait a couple minutes.". Integirty tilted her head back and looked up to her friend.

"You only gave Serinepth a hint, you still owe me one.". Silvi stopped pushing her along and Integirty stood up straight to see they were in front of the necromancy department. Opening her mouth to continue her point, Integrity looked behind her to see Silvi was already walking away quickly and waving back to her.

"Talk to your mentor, we'll meet you in the Hall of Voyages in an hour!" She called over her shoulder before running away. Integirty sighed and leaned against the wall outside the main doors of the necromancy department and looked around. It seemed like she was the first person there. She relaxed a bit and looked around her, sometime during her first class the storm outside the cave had calmed down; there was still loud rain crashing down from the cave mouth, but the wind had completely stopped. If it wasn't for the different light sources coming from the windows and hanging on the walls outside the buildings, the grounds would be described as gloomy rather than oddly enchanting. Alas, with the repetitive beat of the rain, and the relative silence of solitude, there was nothing around Integirty to distract her. So she would just have to distract herself.

She was walking up and down the hall outside the necromancy department on her hands, seeing how many steps it took to go from one end to the other before turning around and trying to drop the number by one each time. She started with 45 steps, having stumbled a bit as she had walked down the hall the first time. With each pass her movements were becoming more fluid and decisive. Her goal was to take the least amount of steps to reach the other end. She took up 5 minutes of time just going back and forth and had brought it down to 34 steps before she took a break and sat down. She had walked over to the courtyards stone fence and sat on the ledge, resting her arms in her lap.

 _That doesn't sound right, 'step'. You can't step with your hands. Step is for feet. What word am I supposed to use for my hands, a clap? That doesn't work either cause a clap usually involves a hand hitting another hand. Okay, so not a clap._ She rubbed her shoulder as she tried to think of the right word to describe this activity. _Maybe a combination word between step and clap? A SLAP! Wait, that was already a word. Well, it sounded better than step. I'm slapping my hands on the ground? Hand standing and slapping my hands...that still doesn't sound right._

Integrity stood up again to start her slapping ( _yeah putting it into a proper sentence it really didn't sound right at all_ ) again when she noticed Mira in the distance walking towards her. She jumped at the prospect of other people around and literally jumped into the air, waving to Mira and not stopping until she heard Mira yell a greeting and wave in the distance before starting to run over.

"Where are the others?" Mira called as she got within 20 feet of integrity, slowing to a walk. Integirty looked around them for any sign of other people besides them as Mira leaned against the wall next to her.

"I haven't seen them yet." She sighed, walking back over to her seat on the ledge and reclining back on it, pulling her legs up and resting them in the space between the two pillars that held up the overhanging roof.

"Weird, usually Serinepth's here early at least." Mira scratched the side of her nose and sighed as some students started making their way across the courtyard towards the dining hall. "Your class ended early?"

"Yeah, Professor Hode felt bad for keeping us late last time with the history of the first continental council meeting so she let us out a little early." Mira nodded approvingly and looked around, scanning the crowds for their friends.

"Nice." They sat for a few moments when, out across the courtyard, they saw Serinepth's tall form walking a couple inches over the majority of the student body. "Oh perfect, now we just got to wait for...oh, nevermind." Just as Mira was about to finish her initial sentence, Serinepth travelled to a less populated section of the crowd, reaching the centre courtyard and revealing that she was carrying Winsler on her shoulders. The two watched as their friends moved together. While Serinepth acted as the legs, Winsler looked over her head and was searching the crowds below him for something. Most likely someone.

"Winsler! Serinepth!" Integrity called out, waving to them from her windowed viewpoint. Winsler turned his head back and forth, first looking through the crowd again before looking at middle distance and scanning the courtyard itself. Eventually he looked over to them and smiled, waving back to them. Though the two women couldn't hear what was being said, they watched him tap Serinepth's head and point her to where they needed to go, the taller woman needed an extra moment to notice the two other teammates across from them. Very soon the four students were together again outside the necromancy department. Serinepth clapped her hands, excited to learn more about their trip finally.

"I bet it's another chill trip like that time we went to Lightmere." Mira guessed, sitting on the ledge next to Integrity while Winsler wandered the hall in front of them.

"Mm yes, spa's and gardens."

"Almost completely destroying a garden." Winsler stopped walking at the insinuation and looked over to the three woman looking over to him.

"I said I was sorry." He defended. The group nodded in agreement.

"You did, a garden was still destroyed." Mira commended.

"I kind of don't want to compare this trip to trips we've had before. Everywhere we've gone so far had something go off path." The group reluctantly agreed with Serinepth's worry, she tended to be cautious when it came to leaving the school grounds. Mira was quick to answer her friends concerns with a hand on the shoulder and a warm smile.

"I agree, every trip is unique. We'll have a wonderful time, and if something happens we know we can get through it together.". When she got a nod from Serinepth she glanced to the others, making sure they could see that this message was directed to them as well.

"Good afternoon." Integrity jumped from her spot with a screech and spun to see Artis standing on the other side of the ledge.

"Hello." Mira smiled to him, giving a general wave.

"Hi." Serinepth chirped from her leaning position, tilting left to look around the columns width to see their mentor. Winsler walked up next to Integirty and waved as well.

"Howdy." Integrity waved but didn't say anything. Artis nodded in general greetings to each student, having learned that no matter the situation sometimes they just needed to say it. He stood in his usual dark clothes, his hands behind his back, black hair tied back out of his face and his pale skin contrasting his dark eye bags that he hasn't been able to get rid off since the danger seemed to quadruple around his students over the last year. Although his expression showed his general tiredness, there was some excitement in his eyes as he watched the team come around to the other side of the divider and stand in front of him in the courtyard. Once they were all together he brought his hands out from behind his back and showed the students a stained parchment, unfolding it to show a letter.

"Now, I realize that I usually give you all more of a confirmation date before we go on these trips. The reason that this is happening is because of a letter I received from an old friend who moved away a very long time ago." He emphasized the letter with a final movement to unfold the letter itself. Mira glanced down at the paper he was holding, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"Is there something wrong?" She asked him tentatively, knowing that the subject of old friends tended to be a sore stop for Artis. He shook his head and the beginnings of a smile began to show on his face.

"Nothing wrong." He sounded less troubled as he explained himself. "to be more precise, she was one of my professors. Similar to what Professor Yexim studies, her focus was around ancient societies and ancient forms of magic. Because of this knowledge in her work she has passing knowledge of our affiliation with the orbs." That definitely caught the students attention. "And, according to her letter, she seems to have found some old papers surrounding orbs of power and their affiliation with old magic." he finishes explanation, looking between the four students in front of him and gauging their reaction. No one spoke for a couple of moments, the students mulling the information around in their head. Eventually, Integrity spoke.

"Can we, like, trust her?" At her question, Artis nodded.

"I believe we can. She doesn't know the orbs in question are real, I had always been careful to keep my interest in it as non- influenced as possible. As far as she knows, I found something in the library and wanted to learn more about it.". He rubbed his chin in thought. "She wishes for us to come to visit her, as it were. It's been a long time since I've actually seen her, she retired and went traveling a few hundred years ago. She said that she found the book for us to take, and invites us to stay for the festival that is going on in the town near her cottage tonight.". Excitement was starting to buzz through the small group of students as their mentor explained. It sounded like the most relaxing trip they would go on. Though Serinepth was still weary she felt her mood picking up at the thought of going to a festival with the two groups together. Winsler rose his hand, waiting for Artis to call on him.

"So, where exactly are we going?" He rose his eyebrow at the question and looked over to Serinepth.

"We're actually traveling to the center of the Ashuan Kingdom. Are you familiar with the farm town of Esrid?" That definetly caught her attention. She crossed her arms and began to tap her chin, running her mind through years of political studies, and economic reports.

"A lot of our agricultural trade comes through there. It's a very mild area, tends to yield large harvests, generally on the humid side, especially during the storm season." She dropped her hand and rested it on her hip with a smile. "It's an open area, the winds help with growing and spreading seeds and spore to help with successful harvests. So, it will most likely stay warm the entire day." The others watched her explain with some surprise.

"Wow, it sounds like a nice place to visit." Mira commented, watching her friends excitement. There was a pause before the human rubbed her hands together.

"I mean, I've never been there before, but I've read materials of people who have been there." She admitted with a nod before looking to the group. "Do we know what festival is happening? It's way too early for a harvest to be going on.". Artis shook his head, the letter having been folded up once again and put into his bag.

"She didn't explain that, but said that she's sure you'll all have a wonderful time.". He gestured for the group to come with him, and the five of them started making their way towards the Hall of Voyages, or more specifically the secondary department that was built under a more secure section of the building, as the main area was still under investigation. As the group made their way across the courtyard, the students asked their mentor some questions about the woman that they were going to meet.

"How does she know your mentoring students?" Integirty asked, walking at the front of the group.

"She and I periodically send letters to each other. I keep her up to date on the happenings at the school itself, she sends letters talking about her travels and any interesting things that she finds on our journey."

"Does she know about us?" Mira asked him from the far left of the group, walking slightly behind Serinepth's long strides. Winsler kept middle centre with some difficulty until the tall woman asked if he wanted another ride? He puffed his cheeks at her momentarily, but eventually agreed, climbing onto her back as she crouched down and pulled him up with a hand onset each leg and started walking again. Artis paused at her question, as if he had just realized something, but continued walking.

"We generally keep our conversations fairly vague, she knows that I'm mentoring a group of students who have caused some trouble around the school," the group scoffed at the completely valid critique as he continued speaking. "However, she doesn't know the details of who you are individually. I'm sure that she'll like you all."

"I mean, I bet she had to deal with some trouble making kids when she taught here, I don't believe for a second that we are the first group of first years to cause problems." Integirty argued, waving a hand to emphasize the group as a whole.

"As well as give creative and slightly problematic solutions." Serinepth added with a smirk. Mira laughed and bumped her shoulder. The group continued their journey in silence, reaching the main doors of the Hall of Voyages. From inside they could hear Yexim giving a general speech around people keeping polite with the locals once they got to their destination. He stopped when he noticed the group join his and he smiled, gesturing for them to join him before stepping to the side with Artis to discuss any last minute preparations. The group watched their mentors discuss and quickly realized they were being ignored for the moment.

"Hey, did you get the answer you were looking for?" Philip whispered as Serinepth took a spot next to him.

"Yeah, it sounds like it's gonna be fun, but we still don't know what the festival is." Integirty turned from where she had stopped next to Silvi and the group slowly made a circle each head leaning into an imitation of a huddle.

"Are you kidding, the festival is the best part!" Silvi squeaked as she tried to keep her voice quiet. "It's apparently a huge tradition for the town, it was started hundreds of years ago."

"Yeah, Yexim was excited to get an invitation, he's been asking for the last couple of years if he would be allowed to look at some of the old transcripts from the first years the whole thing took place. It's filled with old magic descriptions, some Divinity stuff." Gennal added, looking somewhat interested in the whole excursion.

"Not that it's really prevalent in the festival now apparently, it's more of a carnival night and then at the end they do some stargazing." Lucia tilted her head back and had a blissful smile on her face, periodically glancing to her side to her teammates.

"So it's a carnival, sweet." Mira clapped her hands excitedly, bouncing on the pads of her shoes.

"Apparently this year is special, there's going to be this meteor shower similar to the ones that happened during the actual Magic festival. And because of that the town's folk are trying to bring back some older traditions, I hear they're going to have, like, a puppet show and musicians are showing up to perform because where the town is the meteor shower is super prevalent." The groups started to fall into conversations around what they wanted to do at the festival, Integrity was excited to see if there were any games that she could beat and possibly win a new pet. Speaking of pets, Mr Wiggles tail slid out from under Windsor's hat and hung over the gnomes ear. Feeling the pressure for against his face, Winsler reached up and pulled off his hat resting it on Serinepth's head as the cat stretched out on the top of his head, kneading his curly hair before climbing down slightly and sitting on top of Serinepth's head and looking around.

"Didn't your mentor say that, because we're only going for the evening, we didn't need to bring pets?" Gennal asked, looking up at the Blue Persian who was licking his paw with disinterest to what was happening around him.

"Yeah, but Mr. Wiggles isn't my pet, he's my familiar.". Winsler explained as he pet the cats head, who began to circle to get more area on his being scratched. Integrity laughed at Serinepth's expression as she tried to stay completely still to not jostle the cat.

"I mean that's no fair, Crowagami is made of paper. They aren't technically a real animal. Neither is ida." Integrity gasped loudly, covering her bag with her hands and staring at Mira with a betrayed expression. Her eyes widened, as if realizing her mistake. The group looked at her in silence before Serinepth spoke up.

"Integirty were you going to smuggle Ida on our trip?". Integrity began to aggressively shush her cousin, pressing her index finger to her mouth. She looked around to the rest of the group, but when no one said anything she sighed and dropped her hand.

"Technically not an _animal_. That's allowed." She half-heartedly admitted, opening her bags main pouch to reveal the plush nine-tailed squirrel curled up in one corner of the bag, resting on some books. "Besides, she can't do anything wrong, look at her." With a slow hand Integrity started petting Ida's head as the rest of the group looked to each other.

"I mean she's right," Serinepth conversed. "Technically the only one in our group who wouldn't be allowed to come is Virgil, and he's probably already asleep upstairs in my bed." Philip nodded in agreement next to her before the sound of someone clearing their throat brought the students to attention. The students all turned together to their mentors, who were watching them with somewhat amused expressions. Taking a step towards the secondary station, Artis and Yexim guided their students into the room to prepare for their final depart.


	4. Esrid

Being transported, no matter how many times you did it, was a strange feeling. Like sitting at the top of roller coaster, waiting for the plunge. Integrity felt the anticipation as they began to shift and move, and at the top of the metaphorical hill she felt the drop. It felt like her stomach had risen to her chest and in a moment she was weightless. She's always enjoyed this part of it, she made the joke once that she would raise her arms and exclaim something of excitement as they flew through space, to which Artis very quickly reprimanded that idea and said that for safety she should not do that. She still wants to do it. Someday she probably will. It's probably a bad idea. She's going to do it anyway.

After a few moments of this weightless feeling, Integrity instinctively braced her knees as she suddenly found herself on solid ground again, keeping herself perfectly straight, as did each of her teammates successfully. She heard a squeak from behind her, and turned to see Lucia stumbling sideways, just being caught by the shoulder by Gennal. Quick to stand up again, she apologized to him and thanked him for the catch, which he brushed away with a smile. She looked in front of her once again to see that their mentors were talking to someone. It was a taller woman, not as tall as Serinepth, but taller than herself and Mira, with a pale freckled face with defined features and orange-red curly hair with silver strands crowning the top of her head. She stood with her back straight, her arms behind her, and wearing impressive and expensive looking robes. Every way she held herself seemed intimidating in a way, except for the warm smile on her face. She spoke quietly with the mentors for a few more minutes before turning to the students and smiling to them.

"Welcome, Wildcliff students, to Esrid. My name is Jen." She spoke with a strong voice and scanned the students with a critical eye. "I'm sure your mentors have already explained what you're doing in town today, but I also wanted to put a couple of ground rules in. First, I would ask you to please not get in the way of anyone setting things up for the day, we're on a bit of a schedule unfortunately, so please be mindful of that. Second, I understand our town is fairly small, and I have been told that some of you have a natural going on the adventures, but I would ask you not to go into any of the farmers fields unless you have an explicit permission." Integrity felt that she was giving her group a longer look than the others. It wasn't like she blamed her. "Third, I understand that you'll be joining us for the festival this evening, while this one isn't really a rule, I just wanted to say that I hope you enjoy yourselves." Her smile turned friendly at her final words and she turned to look to Yexim and began speaking with him once again. Meanwhile, Artis walked over to his group, holding a small handmade map of a crude top down perspective of a town and the roads surrounding it. He rested his index finger against one corner of the map with a red dot in on it and began to trace it to the center and turn it at 90° angle before moving it down into the bottom left corner.

"All right, is everyone ready?" The students voiced their confirmations and with an nod he began to walk towards the town that sat a little bit away from them. Integrity was the first to start moving waving excitedly to the other team before following Artis, the rest quickly following behind her. The field they were walking in was flat and the trail they were following was surrounded by fields of grain. It was familiar for Winsler having seen many harvests as a child on the farm, meanwhile Serinepth recognized this from a few books in the Royal Library that she had read as a child. They walked in relative silence, watching the sun peek through the clouds above them and streaking the fields in the Golden light. It was mesmerizing. Peaceful. Mira was reminded of an old song she had read about in one of her first year music classes, a lot of songs from the Ashuan Kingdom tended to talk about harvests and traveling. Any weather after a storm brought about this sort of piece, it was a shame that during storm season they tended to end as quickly as they came.

"I hope it clears up for tonight." Mira muttered to herself as the sun began to break through more of the clouds above them.

"Yeah, can't really watch the stars when the clouds are in the way." Integirty agreed with her, staring up at the sky.

"Integrity, don't stare at the sun." Serinepth called from where she was now walking at the front behind Artis, turning her head back to watch them. "And it should be clear tonight, the weather patterns for this early in the season tend to be further apart for the first couple of days." They reached the edge, the fields of grain abruptly stopping behind a fence before the first house on the right introduced a cobblestone path to the rest of the town. The path change introduced a quieter walk and opened up the groups ears to the sounds coming from the town's centre.

The middle of town had a small grassy area with wildflowers in it and a large tree in the middle. The small grass patch was surrounded by the same couple Stone road that the group was currently walking on, circulating around the patch and branching out in several ways two different parts of the side streets that branched out two different parts of the town itself. As they moved further into town itself, the buildings began to condense more and more until the center itself, anything not constructed to be road where long buildings with several businesses within it judging by the signs hanging above some of the doors. A handful of booths were set up at the edge of the cobble road resting just a few feet away from the central patch, and many people were at varying stages of decorating and setting out items on the booths for when the festival properly started. They started to walk around the street towards the closest branch, Artis looking down at the map and making sure he was going the right way when voice yelled out to get their attention. A young red-haired boy ran over to them from the side of one of the booths where an older gentleman with equally red hair was setting out some crates next to it, waving his arms to them as he made his way over.

"You're those people from the school, right?". Artis nodded to the boy, whose smile grew incredibly wide as he looked between the five newcomers to the town. "My name's Isaac, Gran told me I had to show you guys how to get to her place, so follow me. " Without saying anything else, Isaac turned around and started walking further down the road then where they were going to turn and started making his way between a couple of the buildings. Winsler looked up to Integrity with a raised eyebrow, but she shrugged and started walking to follow Isaac. Seeing that she didn't find the situation too odd, Winsler started walking to follow her. Mira Serinepth, and Artis stayed back for a moment, looking to each other and waiting for someone to say something before the others got too far ahead. after no one said anything for a couple of seconds Artis sighed and started to follow after them.

"I swear, if we end up getting robbed by another kid." Mira looked over to Serinepth with a raised eyebrow, taking her arm and pulling her along to the others.

"They're not going to rob us. " She raised her arm in exaggeration and sighed, but followed Mira stride.

"You can't prove we're not going to get robbed.". Mira gripped her arm tighter and pulled her along faster when Artis turned the same corner as the others had gone down.

"Remember, new adventure." She reminded her pointedly, "and if it were to happen we really can't leave our group with them then." She added with another good point, to which Serinepth sighed again and started walking at full stride, now pulling Mira along slightly.

They reconvened with the others quickly and started to follow Isaac through a side street, slightly narrower then the main ones, and slowly inclining up a hill where they could see some houses at the top of the slope. Isaac filled the groups silence with his excited chatter about the festival happening that afternoon.

"The entire town is splitting off into sections because of how many travelers wanted to be a part of the festival,, games down one street, snack shops down another, homemade delicacies at the center and entertainment, and storytelling down the last street. It's kind of why we had to go this way because the bards and magicians street is apparently really full right now while people set up. My friends and I are planning on spending the entire day in the game section, but Nikoli says that if we split our groups then we can get more stuff for the end of the day. You guys don't know Nikoli, he's from the farm across town, his mom raises livestock with her sisters. They raised a cow that got this big." Isaac threw his arms out to their full length, the sudden movement making him tumble backwards and onto Winsler, who caught him. He wasn't fazed, however, and stood up again and turned to look at him with wide eyes, as if only just noticing him. "How old are you? I didn't know kids were allowed in big magic schools.". He walked backwards as he talked, going with the stride of someone who had been practicing this for a long time. Winsler looked at with an offended expression.

"I'm not a kid, I'm a gnome." Isaac looked at him confused, but nodded his head like he understood what he was saying.

"Okay, but you're shorter than me." He could hear the others covering their snickers from behind him, save for Artis who was looking up to the houses and trying to reference his map. "We don't have a lot of other races around here, I'm sorry sir," Isaac added when he saw that he was actually insulting Winsler, "Pa tells me I'm too rude for working outside the fields and talking to adults yet, that's why Grans trying to teach me manners.". He looked embarrassed for his quick words and rubbed the back of his neck. It was enough that Winsler felt back for the kid being put on the spot like that.

"It's okay, it's kind of hard to tell without taking my hat off," Winsler lifted the side of his hat to show him his ears. "See?"

"Woah, that's so cool!" He looked stop the rest of the group with an excited smile. "Do all of you have pointy ears too?". Without hesitation Integrity gestured to her cousin on the other side of the group.

"I'm human," Serinepth raised her hand on instinct, gaining the boys attention. He rushed to her side and stared up to her.

"But you're tall, and you have dragon scales.". He poked one of her hands where the scale coverage was most visible. "Did you paste them on? One year for the harvest festival my mom made my sis a dragon costume using charcoal and four of our shipment boxes, but it didn't look half as cool as this.". Serinepth opened her mouth to explain when a voice called out from the first house on their right with the large tree out front.

"Dearie, when I asked you to guide them to my house I didn't expect you to keep them entertained as well." Isaac brought his hand away from Serinepth's with a blush on his face and turned to the old woman everyone could see sitting on the front porch. She was closer to Integrity's height with short curly white hair that framed her pale and wrinkled face, elven ears just poking out of the nest, and warm green eyes that watched the group outside her fenced yard with an equally warm smile. The students watched her for a moment, not sure what to do, but Artis smiled to her in reminisced recognition and walked over to her gate.

"Sorry ma'am.". Isaac called from his spot next to the students and looked up to them once again with a wave. "Well, see you all at the festival later." The boy turned and started running back down the hill towards the town once again with out a glance back, his job was done. The students walked over to the fences edge and joined their mentor in watching the old woman sitting on her porch swing and glancing at the group.

"It seems you've collected quite the interesting batch of students Mr. Artisian." Her eyes scanned each member of the group, though not with the same level of intensity as Jen had earlier. Though the students didn't know how to answer her, Artis kept himself straight and met the woman's gaze with a smile still on his face.

"I learned from the best Professor Idril." He bowed his head in respect and the woman laughed loudly from her spot at his words, pushing herself up and using her cane to go down the stairs and walk the short distance to the gate. Standing it was revealed that though the trousers and shirt she wore were loose on her lean frame there were still muscles in her legs and arms. Once on the other side of the fence she pulled it open and brought her hand up and pinched Artis' cheek, taking in his tired expression before slapping the side of his face gently.

"I haven't been a professor nor mentor in a very long time boy, I have no qualms with my first name being used.". At that she pulled him into a hug, something Artis had clearly not expected but accepted without question. It was quick but simple, and once it was done Artis turned to his students and gestured to the old woman next to her.

"These are my students, Mira Marchand, Integrity Idleberry, Winsler Wallaby, and Serinepth Sinderman," each student took a turn introducing themselves; Mira shook the woman's hand with a warm smile, Integrity did the same, Winsler waved brightly to her, to which she nodded her greeting, and Serinepth gave her usual half bow when meeting people. After they were done, Artis turned to gesture to the old woman at his side.

"Everyone, I'm happy to introduce my friend and previous professor at Wildcliff, Elbereth Idril."


	5. Remind Me

"Well, come inside, it's a bit chilly this time of day." Elbereth waved the group towards her cottage and started to walk towards it with Artis' bent arm for unconscious support. "I'll make us some snacks and you can all update me on the goings-on at Wildcliff.". The group shuffled after their mentor and companion up the yard, still trying to get a read on the old woman as they followed her up the steps, through the door, and down the hallway into the slightly dusty kitchen. She waved the students to the small four person square table that sat in the centre of the kitchen and made her way towards the cupboards where she kept some nuts and dried fruits for personal snacks. The kitchen was quiet as she worked at the side of the kitchen, setting out bags on the counter and placing the filled kettle into a heating metal plate on her over top. Setting the snacks onto the table she scanned the group once again, watching them look around her home with interest and curiosity. She could see that each had their own tensions about being in a new space, the tallest one looked braced for an impact of some sort, the second tallest tapped her prosthetic hand against the side of the table and glanced around in a cycle, the horned one munched on a dried apple slice, but her ears would twitch at the smallest noise that came up; the shortest one with the large hat seemed the most calm of all of them, though she noticed the cat eyes glancing at her from under the rim and purring quietly. Wildcliff had never been a calm school to work in, she could count on one hand the number of problems that came up in her years working there, and it was clear these students could already on their first year. They had been through more then a student would go through, she frowned to herself in thought, her memories of Artis and his friends, young and in a similar state by their last year at Wildcliff, filtered through her mind for a moment. It hurt her heart to see more children dealing with something she couldn't understand, and silently she wondered if it had something to do with the orbs she had heard about all those years ago. With a minute shake of her head she gave the children another endearing smile and moved to her tea cupboard.

"Would any of you want anything to drink? I have an assortment of teas, or some lemonade in the cold-box if you would prefer it." She smiled to them and started taking out the different options before they gave an answer. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Artis watching the scene in front of him and could tell that he was hoping for something to happen.

"Umm, I'm okay, thank you." Mira smiled politely to her and looked around to her friends. Suddenly there was a loud smacking noise and everyone turned to see Mr. Wiggles gnawing on a dried fig while Winsler tried to get him to release it. Serinepth was looking over to the boxes of tea and stood up cautiously, walking over to the counter top and reading the side for the ingredient listing. Integirty took a handful of nuts and pulled them not so subtly to the side of the table when Ida jumped out of her bag and started putting them into the side pocket of one of her tails quickly.

"She knows she can't eat them right?" Mira asked, still tapping but less frequently. Integirty shushed her and covered Ida's ears, who squirmed out of them and scampered across the table to where the bag sat open 

"She just wants to forage like a squirrel she is." Integirty defended her, pulling her out from inside the bag and sitting her on her shoulder. "Besides, this just means that I get randomly generated snacks." She cooed to the nine-tailed squirrel and scratched the top of her head. Elbereth watched the interaction with a smile and stepped over to the table, setting out some glasses and the tall pitcher of lemonade she had made after her breakfast. She turned to the tallest student and walked over to her as she looked at the tea boxes, she was staring at the side of a green mint tea box, but her eyes lacked some focus and she inspected it.

"I find," she began, taking the box from Serinepth's with care when the young woman jumped as Elbereth seemed to appear next to her. "this tea does wonders on your senses and your mind." She smiled brightly, letting the young woman come to her own conclusions and she took the kettle off the heating metal and pulled a cup from her cupboard, filling it with the hot water and leaving it by her side to put together. The young woman smiled to her, crinkling her eyes and showing the tiredness that seemed to hang on her, and nodded her thanks when Elbereth rubbed her shoulder and walked her back over to the table. With a free hand she reached over and rested her hand in front of Mr. Wiggles face and waited for him to rub his head against her hand, sensing no threat from her. She smiled wider and scratched down his back before looking over to Winsler.

"That is a handsome familiar you have Winsler. Not many magic users have a familiar so independent from themselves, that makes this one powerful." Mr. Wiggles enjoyed being called powerful and purred accordingly before she brought her hand away and started pouring them glasses of lemonade. "I remember teaching this young girl centuries ago with a wolf familiar, biggest softie I had ever seen, they would sit between her legs everywhere she sat and would whine for pets from anyone who crossed their path. Mind you those two also got in more trouble than any group combined, almost beat this kid out for most disruptive student.". She gestured over her shoulder to where Artis was watching everyone near the archway of the kitchen. The kitchen became very quiet suddenly, the only noise coming from where Serinepth was stirring the tea bag in her mug with a fork she had pulled from her belt, much to the confusion of the old woman. In that moment each student turned their head quickly and stared at their professor with a surprised expression.

"No way, Artis?". Their mentor flapped his mouth silently for a second, not sure how to respond to the verbal target now set on him. Integirty pointed an accusatory finger at him with a wide mouth. "You were a bad student?"

"And you call us the trouble makers." Serinepth snorted, taking a sip of her tea and relaxing in her chair.

"Oh now, I would never say that Artis was a bad student," she pulled the stool from the small storage room to the left of the kitchen and set it at the corner of the table between Integirty and Mira. "he did, however, have a talent of being in the oddest sorts of situations. Run around the school at random times of the day and following him would be some sort of strange shenanigans.". She looks over to Artis, seeing his eyes frantically jump to each of his students surprised expressions. "Stop looming like a shadow, join the table, there's a chair in the living room you can bring out." He nodded to her and left the kitchen. The second he was out of sight Mira and Integirty turned to Elbereth and started begging for more information.

"What was the craziest thing he ever got caught doing at Wildcliff?" The old woman laughed at the students eagerness, leaning forward on her stool and resting her hands on the table.

"Oh thank would be a tough one. The craziest thing I caught him doing was walking in one of the courtyards in the middle of the night with a bag of books he had taken from the library. When I asked him what he was doing he panicked and said he was trying to return the books to the library.". She glanced to the side where Artis was coming back into the room. "I believe the craziest thing he was ever caught for was destroying half of the archery field." Artis set his chair down loudly and sat on the opposite side of the table.

"That is a blatant lie." Elbereth raised her eyebrow at him, waiting a moment for his explanation. "I never touched the archery field."

"Ah, so all the target posts being taken out of the ground and scattered on the field in the middle of the night wasn't you? Who was caught on the field in the middle of the day when he should have been in classes?". Artis didn't respond at first, sitting back in his chair and refusing to answer the question. Everyone at the table were watching him try and disappear from the conversation, taking the glass of lemonade from next to Serinepth and taking slow sips from it.

"It's like finding out your uncle's part of a gang." Integirty rested her head in her hands, watching Artis with curiosity. "What other things did you do that you wanted to hide from us?" Artis raised his eyebrows at her and continued drinking the lemonade slowly.

"You can't drink lemonade forever." Serinepth leaned closer and muttered to him, watching Integirtys expression. "She has the most patience when it comes to this kind of stuff, you can't win." Artis sighed quietly and set the empty glass down on the table and sat back, crossing his arms and taking a deep breath as he scrambled to explain himself.

"I will admit," he started slowly as his thoughts pieced together. "I tended to stay out later than other students and I got into some...situations," with a quick look around the table. "That doesn't mean I'm not still your mentor and you won't be in trouble if you break the rules.". The students seemed to not be taking this seriously, but they still nodded their heads and agreed with him.

"You know, having a mentor that breaks the rules makes me respect you more," Winsler smiled brightly. "Makes me feel better when I break the rules."

"Your not supposed to feel good about breaking the rules." Serinepth set her finished tea cup on the table. 

"Yeah, but now if I do break the rules I won't feel so bad."

"I should say, a lot of what he did was end up places he wasn't supposed to be, teachers offices for classes he didn't take, parts of the school that he wasn't old or young enough to be in at the time without an explanation. Everytime he was caught he would say he was 'expanding his knowledge on new subjects'." She pointed a finger at Artis with a smile. "Your good grades kept you in our good graces but don't think I don't remember all the things you did at Wildcliff." Artis raised his hands in surrender.

"I promise that I rarely get in trouble now that I have to try and stop my students from breaking the rules.". Reaching to the centre of the table, Elbereth picked up one of a handful of nuts.

"From what I just heard, they have no trouble with getting into trouble on their own." She laughed at her own comment and watched the students each try and hide their own guilt. She smiled brightly and clapped her hands loudly in the small room. "Enough about the trouble you've all undoubtedly gotten yourselves into, tell me about what's been happening at Wildcliff. While I love the letters, Artis only tells me so much of what's going on."

Mira was quick to step in and started talking about the different clubs that were a part of the schools extra curricular activities. She gushed over the book club and how she had recently gotten them to read some young adult books that were really popular in her home and how it expanded to reading the most popular books that the others had read in their early teens. Winsler talked about some of the teachers and about him, Kurt, Mr. Wiggles, and Yog all living in a dorm together since Yog had become a student but there were no extra rooms available. Kurt had been spending that last couple of months trying to teach Yoga the art of pranking friends, but so far it was unsuccessful as Yog wouldn't understand the meaning behind keeping a secret. Integirty brought up the food that the school had to offer, from the dinning hall, which Elbereth admitted had definitely been lacking when she had been a teacher.

"It wasn't that the food variety was lacking, it's just that food was a lot blander then. A lot of stews and roasts. Every Thursday evening the same cabbage stew was made, absolutely ghastly." Artis shivered from the other side of the room at the memories of having to eat the green sludge that would be created, it was never hot enough to get through the entire bowl before the texture went from decent to sludgy and thick. He could taste the bitterness on his tongue suddenly and filled the glass with more lemonade before downing it. 

Serinepth talked about some of the professor's she was learning with and the different facilities having gotten recent upgrades; the libraries ever expanding collection, the greenhouses and their gardens growing more plants, and the old chapel being recently re-decorated for the new year.

"I'm happy to hear the school is finally getting some updates, I'll admit that with the more recent updates I was worried where Wildcliff was going to be heading toward., I'm glad it seems better," she rested her hands on the table and looked around the group. "Well then, I got all I wanted from you, a good visit and some Wildcliff updates. I think it's rude of me to take up all your time and not give you what you were coming here for." With that, Elbereth pushed herself up from the table, picked up her cane, and made her way into the living room. She was out of the room for only a few moments, having set the book to the side in her study/living room, but in those moments each of the current Wildcliff occupants minds raced with what sort of information could possibly be in the book that she had found. Quiet shuffling was the only sound that followed her as she walked back into the kitchen and held the book out to Artis, who took it from her carefully.

"Now," she began, letting him set it on the table and flip to the first bag gently on the delicate paper. "As I said in my letter, I'm not sure exactly if this is the same orbs you had been talking about before, but this had popped up through one of my old aquantances and I jumped to it as fast as I could."

The students moved to the edge of the table, each leaning forward over Artis' shoulder to see what the book said. The images were striking on the worn yellow pages, clearly it had been in the sun for some time by the fade across some of the pages that Artis flipped through. They reminded Serinepth of the stained glass windows in the royal library that showed depictions of the creation of the Kingdom. The language was another interesting subject. The book itself was written in what looked to be Olde Elvish, some of the words were legible for Mira and Artis, but some terms were unrecognizable. Along with this, there were notes along the side in a language none of them seemed to recognize. From the equal fade the notes seemed to be written in around the same time as the books creation. As they looked down at the book itself, Elbereth began cleaning up some of the snack remains and setting the glasses by the sink, which the students noticed right away and began helping with as Artis finished looking through the book.

"Thank you for the snacks." Integirty smiled to her as she set her glass in the sink of still warm water. Elbereth waved off any attempts to help her clean up the dirty dishes and pointed them towards the front of the house 

"Thank you for coming up to give me a visit. Though I'm sure you're all excited to be going to the festival. It should be starting soon now and the best prizes always go fast." Winsler and integrity made their way to the door after extensive 'thank yous', while Serinepth and Mira stayed back and watched Artis sitting at the table. He seemed to sense he was being watched and waved them off.

"You can all go back into town, I'm not one to go for big festivals. I'll meet you all for the shooting stars, alright?"

"Okay, see you rule breaker." Serinepth waved and ran after the other two who had already gotten out of the house, Mira not far behind her.

"Aww, I like them, a group of kids set to cause trouble," Elbereth joked from where she was cleaning the glasses. "They remind me of you and…" she paused for a moment and looked over to him. Artis wasn't blind to the subject that she had been avoiding all throughout the visit. He solemnly nodded to her and smiled slightly.

"Yeah, they do for me too.". They were silent for a few moments before Elbereth clapped again and reached under her washing basin, pulling out an old and cold bottle of alcohol.

"We aren't allowed to be sad today, my boy. Our memories can't be tainted." She set the bottle on the table between them and took two glasses from her already cleaned and dried dishes that were set to the side. She opened the bottle and filled the two glasses with the amber liquid, holding out a glass to Artis. Once he finally took it she held here out to him.

"To those we have lost, and those we haven't." He couldn't help smiling at that and clinked his glass against hers.


	6. Preparations Made

"Festival, festival, festival.". Integirty chanted with her arms in the sky, feeling the wind that made the pre storm humidity bearable to walk in with her long sleeved shirt on, Ida scampering onto her head and miming the same motion. With each beat in 'festival' she pumped her fists into the sky, jumping quickly each time she stopped and waited for Winsler when she unthinkingly started striding towards the town in her excitement. Winsler walked to her left with his hands in front of him, holding his hat off his head so Mr. Wiggles could cool off and get some fresh air before they reached town and he would inevitably start to investigate the different stalls. Though he didn't chant with her, Winsler could feel light-hearted excitement at the prospect of going to the celebration. Growing up on the farm didn't give you a lot of opportunities to go to carnivals or festivals of any kind, much less have the money to join in on anything fun on the off chance of them coming to town. This was going to be a newer experience for him, something he was really looking forward to. As he caught up to her, Integirty was bouncing in place and naming off activities on her fingers. "I'm gonna win another stuffed animal for Ida to play with. Maybe they have a shop or something that sells toys, oh, maybe I can get a big stuffed animal if I win a game. I hope they're cute, maybe a lion or a monkey. I bet they have games we can all play together. Maybe we can play team battles or something and then two of us could have matching stuffed animals, that would be amazing. Wait, first we have to try the snacks here, I bet they have home made recipes weve never tried before, like toffee or chocolate. Oh man, this is going to be amazing I'm so excited". Integirty's energy bubbled up the closer they got into town. She loved festivals, and carnivals for that matter. Whenever they came through her home town she and her siblings ran around to do everything possible before their parents would have to coral them up, drag them home for the night and try to get them to sleep in their crazed sugar rush. She remembered the first time she had gone to one of the carnivals that had set up over night not too far from their home. All the kids around were begging their parents to go by the next afternoon and soon the town's edge was crowded with kids playing games and running around.

"I don't want to ruin your fun, but I don't think we were gone long enough for all the stuff to be ready.". Winsler scratched the side of his head as Mr. Wiggles stood up and stretched out on his head and jumped off. Integirty shook her hear and looked towards the town with a spring in her step.

"I don't care, I'm just really excited to go to a festival with games and stuff. I haven't been to a proper festival in a couple of years, I need my fix." She bounced on her heels for a moment as Mr. Wiggles walked in a couple curled and stretched one more time before looking behind and up the road.

"I'm excited to go to a festival that isn't run by a cult." The two turned to see Serinepth and Mira walking up behind them, the two easily catching up to their friends as they had been moving at Winsler's speed.

"I mean when it wasn't a crazy cult thing we had fun, right?". Serinepth snapped her fingers and pointed to Winsler, one of her gestures of confirmation.

"True, hopefully Seltie hasn't rigged these ones." Integirty noted. The group started making their way back into town as a group.

"Hear me out, Seltie can be anywhere. I bet one of these games is rigged." The group looked to Integirty as they passed the first set of houses, the noise from the main Street venders setting up began to build louder as they moved deeper in.

"She wouldn't do that here would she? There's kids who are coming to play these games.". Serinepth made a half hearted attempt to imagine that this isn't exactly something that would happen.

"Maybe we should keep an eye out for any games that look...enchanted in some way?" Mira suggested, looking around the main centre of town at the different stalls that were now set up and being stocked up with goods for the main festival. There was a group of kids standing around the small central grass mound, some hanging from the tree and others laying in the grass looking around with expressions of suspense and boredom as they waited for everything to be set up.

"I mean, if something is found out to be rigged, I'd hope that who ever set up would pack up before they caused anymore trouble." Serinepth argued as she stretched her arms and looked around at the different large streets that split off from the main centre, biting her lip with worry. "Shouldn't be any of our business anyway." She concluded with a nod to herself and looked to the rest of the group for confirmations of some sort.

One of the young children sitting in the tree Isaac, noticed the group of students walking around the town centre, sticking out from the farmers and market workers who wore earthy tones, and yelled out to them, waving his arms frantically to get their attention and guide them over to him. The students looked to each other before Winsler shrugged and started making his way over to the tree, the others following behind him.

"Hey, school people!" Isaac greeted them with a continued enthusiastic wave. Once they were under the large tree he started gesturing to his group of friends. "These are the school people I was talking about.". The other kids looked at them with varying levels of interest. One kid with dark hair was staring up at Serinepth, having gotten down from their branch in the tree and landing right in front of the group.

"You're really tall,". They stated with wide eyes. "You're taller than my pa, and he's really tall. The tallest person in the world". They threw their arms up and stretched onto their toes, trying to emphasize their dads height. An older looking girl who was sitting at the base of the tree rolled their eyes and leaned back further on the tree, completely bored with the conversation already.

"Pa isn't the tallest person in the world Ether, you just don't know a lot of people." Ether turned and stuck their tongue out at their sister before turning back to Serinepth and grabbing her arm.

"Are you a dragon?! Is that why you're so tall? You have to tell me if you're a dragon, it's the law.". A couple other kids were now standing in front of the group and looking at the students with interest.

"That one has goat horns." A child loudly whispered from up in the tree.

"That's so cool, does that mean she's half goat?" The little girl next to her responded.

"Don't dragons eat goats?!" A boy a branch bellow them asked and quickly yelled down at Serinepth witha point of his finger and a voice artificially deepened with authority. "You aren't allowed to eat the goat lady."

"Deal." Serinepth responded without a second thought before realizing what he had just said. "Wait a second, what?" Integirty gasped and crossed her arms.

"I'm not a goat! That's so rude why would I be a goat?" Before anyone could say anything else the young ones above him kicked him on the shoulder.

"Hey, hitting your friend isnt nice." Mira reprimanded the kids as she watched the boy reach up and smack the kickers leg.

"We aren't friends, he's my brother." The young girl lifted her leg from out of his reach and up onto the branch next to her and rubbed the side of her leg with a frown. The other child next to her looked down at Mira.

"I'm sorry, they're always like this." They apologized lamely. The boy below them looked down to Integirty and frowned.

"If you're not a goat, why do you have horns?" With her hands on her hips Integirty squinted her eyes at the boy.

"I'm a Tiefling.". The boys eyes widened and he jumped down from his branch on the tree.

"Really? Doesn't that mean you're related to demons?! That's so cool, do you have fire magic? Can you steal souls?" He was hopping with excitement and Integirty could help feeling a little disturbed that the kid was when his sister walked over and took his arm, leading him away.

"Let's go, if you're not going to be polite to visitors you get to help gran with the sheep.". Integirty watched them walk away and decided to climb in the tree, Ida following right behind her.

Mira watched her climb up the tree when she felt someone pull on her cloak and turned to one of the young ones.

"You're really pretty and I like your ears." Mira was taken aback by everything going on at the moment but still smiled to her.

"Thank you, I really like your dress." She gestured to the brown dress with green leaves crafted onto it. The child smiled and pulled on the neck hole.

"My mama made it for me, she makes a lot of clothes. You have fancy clothes, I bet they were expensive.". She brushed her hand against the material, her eyes widening at the smooth texture before she stepped away. "I hope you come visit our stall today, we have a lot of clothes that I think you would look really nice in. Bye bye, pretty lady!" The little girl waved happily before she turned around and ran off down the street, leaving Mira behind to wave after her.

A couple kids stood in front of Winsler, watching as Mr.Wiggles climbed up his back and sat on his shoulder, staring at them all with a critical eye.

"Can I pet your cat?" Winsler glanced to Mr.Wiggles, who nodded his head as he watched one of the kids step forward slight, standing a foot taller than Winsler but folding into themself to look un-menacing to Mr Wiggles. He concluded these children spent a lot of time with animals; which made sense with the dirt on their clothes. With his nod Winsler let him climb down him and walk over to the children to start petting him, purring as they told him how handsome and nice he was. Turning his head up to Winsler who crossed his arms and watched his familiar be preened over by the kids. One of the older children got up from the tree and and clapped their hands.

"Okay guys, we have to get back to work and finish final preparations." At the groans from the kids they rolled their eyes. "Come on we had out break, now leave the kids cat alone and get back to your stations.". They clapped their hands again and the groups began to disembark.

"You know, I'm older than you." Winsler explained to the older kids. They looked over to Winsler and pointedly measured his height with their eyes before smirking.

"Sure you are," they turned and started making their way across the grass centre, "enjoy the festival, in t should be starting in a half hour of so.". The group was left to themselves, Integirty in the tree with Mira and Winsler underneath her branch and watching the streets around them. The only child left at the centre was Ether, who was still staring up at Serinepth. They seemed more excited at the prospect of meeting a dragon and pulled Serinepth down so they were eye level.

"Are you in disguise? You don't have wings or fangs." Trying to keep her head straight with everything going on around them.

" I come from dragons technically, I myself am not a full dragon." She held out her hand to the child with a smile. "My name's Serinepth, what's yours?"

"Ether, it's nice to meet you Seripe...Serith...Seripenth?" They struggled along, trying to pronounce the name around their lost front tooth causing a lisp. Frowning, they tapped they're chin. "I'm sorry.". She smiled to them.

"My friends call me Seri sometimes." Ether looked up to her at the suggestion and smiled.

"My friends call me Eth." Serinepth smiled and held out her hand to them.

"Let's be friends then.". Ether took her hand with both of theirs and shook her hand vigorously.

"I have to get back to work, but you have to come visit my stall. My mom hasn't seen a dragon in disguise before.". After getting Serinepth to agree they left the students to their own devices for a few minutes before Philip, Silvi, Lucia, and Gennal found them and joined their group. Gennal was quick to climb up the tree and look around them from the new point of view, much to Lucia's worry as she asked him to please be careful. Silvi sat down on the grass and leaned against the base of the tree before looking up to integrity.

"How are you guys enjoying the town?". Integirty frowned and rested her head in her arms, resting them on another smaller branch in front of her.

"I got called a goat.". Silvi pressed her mouth into a straight line and cleared her throat to stop herself from laughing.

"If it makes you feel better, a kid around here asked me if I was a giant lizard."

"Man, kids suck." Silvi nodded in agreement as Mira walked over.

"Not all kids are bad, some of them are just unfiltered." She sat down next to Silvi under the tree. "And violent."

"I mean, we have to be violent sometimes too." Lucia pointed out, sitting down next to Silvi's other side and looking up to see Gennal hanging upside down on the branch above her.

"Gennal please.". Gennal sighed and stretched, bringing his hand down and miming a pat to her head.

"I'm perfectly fine hanging from a tree, I do it all the time."

"Find anything fun?" Philip walked over to where Serinepth was watching Ether and their siblings putting everything away.

"Met some kids, had some tea, nothing really big so far." She turned and looked over to Philip. "How was your group excursion?". With a smile Philip lead her over to the tree to be with the others.

"It was fun, but guess. Yexim met with the mayor and we met with the town council, there was this private library where the old scriptures about the festival were set out for us. We read them and then Yexim told us to 'experience traditions' and went to have tea with the coucil."

"Fun, so what do we do now?". Integrity asked the group below her, getting a mix of shrugs or thoughtful looks.

"I guess there's nothing to do except wait for the festival to start." Lucia suggested, laying completely on the grass.

"I'm okay with that." Serinepth sighed, laying down on the grass, leaving room for where Philip sat down against the tree and she used his leg as a pillow. The group went silent, listening to the commotions around them, the wind blowing above them and disturbing a wind chime at one of the shore fronts. It wasn't to hot or cold at that point of the day, it was perfect to just lay outside and relax for a bit. The group individually closed their eyes and took a deep breaths, smelling the grass and the warm atmosphere mixed with the baked scents coming from the stalls around them.

"This is nice." Winsler commented off handedly.

"Yeah." The rest of the group agreed quietly, letting the spring day lull along.

**Author's Note:**

> Please join this journey where I try to consistently write something and not hyperfixate on something else along the way


End file.
